Yes Bank appoints Ravneet Gill as new CEO to replace Rana Kapoor

Gill will replace Rana Kapoor at the helm of the private lender. Kapoor finishes his tenure as the Yes Bank CEO on January 31.

Yes Bank announced that it has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to appoint Ravneet Singh as the next Managing Director and CEO of the bank. The annoucement was made after the bank's board meeting on Thursday. Gill will replace founder Rana Kapoor for the top job at the private lender. Gill presently heads Deutsche Bank India.

"The Bank has received RBI approval for its new MD & CEO, Mr. Ravneet Singh Gill for him to join on or before March 1, 2019," Yes Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Back in September last year, the RBI had denied Kapoor another extension for the position of Yes Bank CEO. He was given till the end of this month to leave the office. Yes Bank was asked to find a replacement before February 1.

After the RBI's refusal to extend his term, the Yes Bank board made second request to the RBI to extend his term to March 2020. But that was also rejected by the monetary authority leading the appointment of a search panel.

The RBI had not given clear reasons for its reservations against sanctioning another three-year term for Kapoor. This action by RBI had been, however, attributed to Axis Bank under-reporting its bad loans for two years with Kapoor's in-charge.

Yes Bank, along with its larger rival Axis Bank, were found to have under-reported its stock of non-performing assets by a cumulative Rs 10,000 crore each for two consecutive fiscals. The RBI drove a management change at Axis Bank as well and Shikha Sharma had left the bank by the end of last month.

After RBI's refused a second time, Yes Bank had appointed a committee under former IRDAI chairman TS Vijayan to look for a successor to Kapoor, who is one of the promoters of the bank along with his sister-in-law Bindu Kapur.

Even the CEO search panel saw some abrupt resignations including former bureaucrat and the bank's non-executive chairman Ashok Chawla. He left his post promptly after being named in a graft case by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Former SBI chairman OP Bhatt had also left the search panel mid-way.

The Yes Bank stock closed 8.39% or 16 points higher at 213.85 compared to the previous close of 197.30 on the BSE after the RBI approvement Gill's appointment as the new CEO.